History

OK, a little history. The ol’ cliche “I’ve struggled with my weight ever since I graduated from high school…” too me is funny. See, I’ve struggled with my weight since I CAME OUT OF MY MOTHERS WOMB! Snails have faster metabolisms than I do!

Ok, now that’s out of the way, let me tell you a little about myself.

Name: Ray V.

Age: 44

Height: 5′-10″

Occupation: Project Supervisor (Civil Engineering)

Married

Like I mentioned above, I’ve literally been “big” all my life. When I was 5-6 years old, I kept hearing from adults: “Don’t worry, you’ll grow out of it.” I remember it making me feel better, but – Surprise! I did grow, but not out of it.

I was a fairly normal kid, spoiled since I was an only child. Had a decent amount of friends, but I was always the fat kid when it came to sports. I held my own fairly well though.

Growing up, I was never really into sports that much. I played backyard football, baseball, and street hockey once in awhile, but it never really interested me to the point that I wanted to join leagues, etc. I did enjoy cycling though, and still do to this day.

Unlike alot of people that struggle with their weight, I actually “topped out” in my early 20s (1993+/-) after graduating college and taking on a government job in a bigger City 12 hours away from home. I remember weighing myself and seeing close to 300 lbs. Sitting down in front of the TV on and eating a whole large pizza by myself had become a Friday evening tradition. Yikes!

Finally realizing that I had to do something, I headed to the bookstore to try and educate myself. The following might make some people break into laughter, but it’s the truth; I picked up Chuck Norris’ autobiography. Yes, go ahead….wipe the tears of laughter. 😉

XMas 2000, approx. 275 lb

It was a very inspiring read, enough so that I went to the book store again and bought: Flawless: The 10-Week Total Image Method for Transforming Your Physique by Bob Paris. That was my starting point of weight loss, and nutrition enlightenment. After following the 10 week program in the spring of 1995, I had managed to drop over 40 lbs! I was also at the gym 3-4 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. Then, midway through my 2nd stage, I somehow lost motivation/focus.

Fast forward to today – 2009. At this point, I have read dozens of books and done research on exercise, nutrition, cardio, etc, tried a dozen different “diets”, and I even have a diploma in Fitness & Nutrition. I believe I know more than alot of certified individuals out there. I have all the tools necessary to be cut like Jason Statham. But it all boils down to setting goals & following through, and the motivation up to achieve. This is were this site comes in. By setting attainable goals to personal health & fitness, and making myself accountable, anything is doable, even an IRONMAN event in the future. By the way, I never returned to my original 300 lbs weight. I’ve been as high as 280 lbs, but my average for the last 10 years is around 260 lbs.

OK, now that everything is out in the open, I have a couple more things to add. Over the years, I have accumulated undesirable health issues that I will need to work around, or overcome to be successful. These are as follows;

Lower Back – I have 2 herniated disc that causes me severe pain at times.

Right Shoulder – The AC joint has moderate degeneration, and the rotator cuff is weak because of the pain caused by the AC joint. All this causing pain if worked too hard.

Diabetic – Type II – I was diagnosed in 2000 but based on recognized symptoms, I probably already had it 5-6 years earlier.

That just means that I have to tailor my exercise & nutrition schedule to accommodate these “handicaps”.

With that said – Let the games begin, and don’t be afraid to kick my ass if I’m getting out of line.